Fake IT workers fund Kim Jong Un’s missile program, says U.S. Treasury originally appeared on TheStreet .

The U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned two individuals and four entities associated with what the Treasury described as a North Korean scheme that allegedly penetrated U.S. crypto companies through fake IT work programs to raise funds for the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un regime's missile programs.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on July 8 that Song Kum Hyok, an individual in North Korea, stole the identities of U.S. citizens and provided them to foreign-based IT workers acting as remote employees of U.S. firms.

A Russian national named Gayk Asatryan was sanctioned as well for allegedly using his businesses to hire dozens of North Korean IT workers and having them contracted to DPRK-linked trading companies. The DPRK is the abbreviation for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name for North Korea.

According to blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs , the scheme is part of a combined North Korean tactic that has shifted from hacks to impersonations and social engineering.

According to reports, the DPRK is home to thousands of skilled IT professionals, primarily from China and Russia, who are specifically targeting high-income countries. These workers use mainstream job platforms to secure positions at blockchain and tech companies under false identities.

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"Treasury remains committed to disrupting the Kim regime's efforts to fund weapons development through digital theft and deception," said Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender.

Furthermore, TRM Labs stated that North Korean-linked actors are responsible for $1.6 billion in theft during the first half of 2025, accounting for $2.1 billion of the total losses due to crypto exploits. That enforcement action is part of a larger U.S. effort to prevent illicit cryptocurrency from flowing from North Korea.

North Korea a hotbed for crypto scams

On June 30, four DPRK nationals were charged with fraud and money laundering, and just a couple of weeks earlier, the Department of Justice moved to seize more than $7.7 million in cryptocurrency earned from similar operations.

According to a new report, North Korean IT workers have lately changed methods, with the regime now purportedly recruiting foreigners to help them pass preliminary rounds of job interviews at global companies. Fraser Edwards, CEO and founder of Cheqd, stated that “North Korean IT operatives are using European “proxies” to infiltrate crypto firms.”